Moving to a new home: energy checklist
Short answer. When you move, the first fact is which utility delivers power at the new address. The second is whether the account will be in your name. Only then do you shop for supply. Your old supplier contract does not follow you automatically, and the new address may be a different utility, a municipal utility, or a market with no retail choice.
Before you give notice
Pull the old contract and find the end date and the early termination fee. If the fee is large and the move is soon, price it. Ask the supplier whether a documented move cancels the fee. Do not assume it does. Schedule the old account to end on your move-out meter read so you are not billed for an empty apartment.
At the new address
Identify the delivery utility from the landlord, the listing, or a utility service map, then confirm it when the first bill arrives. If the home is outside retail choice, start service with that utility and stop. If it is in a choice market, you can start on default supply and switch after you see one full bill, which is often cleaner than enrolling blind. If the landlord holds the account, you cannot switch it.
Match any new fixed term to how long you will live there. A 36-month contract on a 12-month lease is a fee waiting to happen. Take a photo of the meter on move-in day.
What to set up in the first month
Check that supply shows one provider, not two overlapping charges. Confirm the rate matches the offer. Put the contract end date on a calendar. If the home has electric heat or a well pump you did not have before, your old kWh is the wrong comparison volume.
Questions people ask
Can I transfer my current electricity rate to the new house?
Only if the supplier and the new utility territory both allow it. Many contracts are tied to the meter. Ask the supplier and get the answer in writing.
Should I sign a supplier before I have an account number?
You can often start on the utility’s default supply and shop after the account exists. That avoids enrolling the wrong utility territory from a listing.
Who do I call if the power is off on move-in day?
The delivery utility, not the supplier you may have chosen. The utility owns the connection.
Use the bill, not a stale screenshot
Moving to a new home: energy checklist comes down to documents you can keep: the utility name on the bill, the supply price or default price, the kWh or demand that drove the charges, and the term and fees in any contract. National average prices from the Energy Information Administration are context. For 2024, EIA put average residential use at 865 kWh a month and the average residential price at 16.5 cents per kWh. For June 2026, EIA reported 18.34 cents per kWh of residential revenue. Those figures mix supply and delivery for the whole country. They are not a price to compare, and they are not an offer in this territory.
If a salesperson’s number and the bill disagree, keep the bill. Shop Energy Prices does not rank suppliers and does not publish a live rate table. Re-check the official shopping site or the utility tariff on the day you enroll, because offers and default prices change.
Going further on Moving to a new home: energy checklist
Moving to a new home: energy checklist is a contract or bill-literacy question. The document that controls is the one you can download for your account, not a summary on a comparison site.
Supply is the part a choice customer can shop. Delivery is the utility’s wires, metering, and outage response. Fees, credits, and the end-of-term rule decide whether a low cents figure is actually low at your usage.
A fixed price holds the contracted supply rate for the term. A variable price follows the supplier’s posted rule. An early termination fee is the cost of leaving a fixed term early. Rescission is a short window at the start, where state rules give you one. They are not the same right.
Switches take effect on a meter read, not the hour you click. Until the utility confirms the date, the old arrangement remains. Keep paying undisputed delivery charges. Two supply charges for the same dates are a billing dispute with the utility.
An illustration, not an offer: 650 kilowatt-hours times a 1 cent gap is 7 dollars before any monthly fee. If the fee is larger, the gap is not a reason to switch.
When the term ends, many contracts roll to a price you did not re-shop. Put a reminder 30 to 60 days ahead. Default service is a legitimate choice if the new offers are worse.
What to verify before you act
Write down the utility name, the account name, the supply price or default price, and a typical month of use. Moving to a new home: energy checklist does not change those four facts. If a contractor, a supplier, or a city page disagrees with the bill, the bill wins. Shop Energy Prices does not sell electricity and does not keep a live rate table.
Use one official source for the benchmark: the price to compare or default service on the bill, the state shopping site if your state publishes one, or the commission docket that sets the default. EIA’s national averages are context for scale. They are the wrong number to beat.
Keep the contract PDF. Circle the term, the fee to leave, the renewal rule, and any pass-through that is not fixed. A verbal match to a competitor is not the product. If you are inside a cancellation window, follow the written notice method the same day and keep a copy.
Re-read the contract or tariff section that mentions Moving to a new home: energy checklist and copy the defined term into your notes. If the defined term does not match the way a salesperson used the words, the defined term controls. Ask the supplier or the utility, in writing, which line on the next bill will change and which lines will not.
Re-read the contract or tariff section that mentions Moving to a new home: energy checklist and copy the defined term into your notes. If the defined term does not match the way a salesperson used the words, the defined term controls. Ask the supplier or the utility, in writing, which line on the next bill will change and which lines will not.
Re-read the contract or tariff section that mentions Moving to a new home: energy checklist and copy the defined term into your notes. If the defined term does not match the way a salesperson used the words, the defined term controls. Ask the supplier or the utility, in writing, which line on the next bill will change and which lines will not.
A worksheet for Moving to a new home: energy checklist
Write the utility, the rate class, the current supply or default price, the end date, and a recent month of kilowatt-hours. Beside them write the alternative and every fee. Moving to a new home: energy checklist is finished only when those two columns can be subtracted. If you cannot name the fee to leave, you do not yet have a decision.